Title
A Resolution Of The City Commission Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Approving And Authorizing The Appropriate City Officials To Execute A Supplemental Services Agreement With Aclara Technologies, LLC. To Diagnose, Repair, Remove, And Replace Advanced Metering Infrastructure System Components At Approximately 840 Water Service Locations In The City In An Estimated Amount Of $97,050.54 Based Upon Section 38.41(C)(9) Of The Procurement Code (Best Interest); Amending The Fiscal Year 2022 Adopted Operating Budget.
Strategic Plan Focus
Infrastructure & Facilities
Body
Staff Recommends: Approval of the attached Resolution.
Explanation:
The Department of Public Utilities (“Department”) owns, operates, and maintains an advanced metering infrastructure (“AMI”) system that records, collects, and transmits water consumption data to the Department’s billing system. Briefly, the Department’s AMI System consists of a water meter with a register to record water consumption at each service location. The water consumption data recorded by each register is collected and transmitted by a meter transmission unit (“MTU”) to a network of Data Collection Units (“DCU”).
The Department’s AMI system was installed between 2009 and 2012 and consists of approximately 41,500 MTUs, and 34 DCUs. These DCUs transmit consumption data to the Aclara Technologies LLC, (the vendor, “Aclara”) Meter Data Management System called AclaraSTAR, which interfaces with the City’s billing system MUNIS that generates monthly billing data. Since then, approximately 10,771 Legacy 501 MTUs were replaced by Aclara under warranty or by the City. However, in 2018 the production of Legacy 501 MTUs was discontinued. Thereafter, approximately 11,330 Legacy 501 MTUs (27% of the system) were replaced by the newer Series 3400 units under warranty by Aclara or by the City.
The Department’s AMI system currently has approximately 19,350 Legacy 501 MTUs remaining that are failing at a high rate due to their age, battery life, wiring connections, environmental conditions, or a combination thereof. In addition, a majority of the water meters and registers are also past their useful life and need to be replaced. A combination of the aforementioned issues is resulting in inaccurate or missed readings, poor or no transmission of consumption data, and other similar issues.
Due to the current high rate of failures at various service locations, Department staff is unable to meet the repairs and replacement demands of the AMI system components and therefore needs assistance from “Aclara”, who is the manufacturer and sole provider of these MTUs in the state of Florida, to expeditiously address critical locations. Aclara is the sole manufacturer of the MTUs and is the only company that can provide the needed expertise and knowledge to perform this work. Aclara does not certify other companies to troubleshoot the field MTU related issues that this project requires.
The Department requested a quote from Aclara for diagnosis, repairs and installation services for approximately 840 service locations that have failed or are nearing failure. The quote for this work is $97,050.54, which includes a base cost of $77,844.04 and $19,206.50 for additional installation services, if needed, as there are many unknowns at this time. The Department will furnish various replacement components such as MTUs, meters, and registers.
Under this agreement, Aclara will diagnose each water service location, and based on the diagnosis will either resplice the existing wiring connectors, replace MTUs, meters, or registers, or a combination thereof. In addition, Aclara will also set-up a work order management system for programming each repair location and perform data integration of the newly installed MTUs, meter, or registers and AclaraSTAR. The subject work is expected to be completed in 30 calendar days.
Section 38.41(C)(9) of the City’s Procurement Code provides that when the City Commission declares by a 5/7ths vote that competitive bidding and competitive proposals are not in the best interest of the City, such purchases are exempt from the competitive bidding and competitive proposal requirements.
The Director of The Department of Public Utilities and the Assistant Director of Financial Services for Procurement have determined that it is in the City’s best interest to award and execute an agreement with Aclara Technologies, LLC for the diagnosis, repair, and replacement of AMI system components at approximately 840 water service locations within the City in an estimated amount of $97,050.54.
Fiscal Impact
Funding will be made available in Fiscal Year 2022 Operating Budget as detailed in Exhibit 1, subject to approval of this resolution.
The Department of Public Utilities will manage this project. No additional staff is needed as a result of this action.
Recommended for inclusion on the agenda by:
Keith Moran, Deputy Director/Finance, Department of Public Utilities
Vivek Galav, Director, Department of Public Utilities
Gus Zambrano, Assistant City Manager/Sustainable Development
Attachments:
• Resolution
• Exhibit 1
• Aclara Supplemental Services Agreement
• Aclara Field Services Statement of Work
• Aclara Quote Field Services
• Aclara Certificate of Insurance